Wagen

Male
DWP
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Wagen is an anglicized form of the Old Danish masculine name Vagn, for which the Old English cognate *Wægn (perhaps originating as a nickname from OE wægn ‘wagon, cart’) is unrecorded but may occur in the place-name Wanswell, Glos. (Björkmann 1910: 172-3; von Feilitzen 1937: 86; Smith 1964: 230; cf. McClure and Rollason 2007: 257). Von Feilitzen (1937: 86, 402-3; contra Redin 1919: 72) suggests that the absence of final in the DB form Waga may indicate weak articulation of [n] in this position in Anglo-Norman pronunciation, although Brown (1984: DB Norf. 13,24 Notes) argues that the scribe mistook an original Wagen or Wagan as an oblique case and so presumed Waga to be the correct nominative form; in either case, the identification of DB Waga with Wagen of Wootton (Wagen 1) confirms that derivation from OE Waga is not to be considered in this instance. 

All but one of the pre- and post-Conquest insular forms of Vagn show the usual initial ‘w’ (the exception is LDB Vaganus, perhaps a scribal error since the same scribe elsewhere renders Wihtgar as Visgaro; see von Feilitzen 1937: 75; Rumble 1987: 98-9) and all have an inorganic vowel after the ‘g’, which suggests that this was a feature of pre-Conquest anglicization and not simply the result of post-Conquest pronunciation or scribal practices (cf. von Feilitzen 1937: 72-4). For these reasons, and because the earliest form of the name in the manorial affix of Wootton Wawen is treated as an OE genitive (Wageneswitona 1138x47; Watts 2004: 699), the Anglo-Scandinavian name Wagen rather than ODan Vagn is adopted as the head-form here.

The only entries in the PASE corpus are for Vagn 1, a catch-all category for occurrences of this name in DB, and for Wagan 1 of Wootton, recorded as minister in several mid-eleventh-century charters (Wagan S 1406, S 1409, S 1425; Wagen S 1408; Wagene de Wotton S 1226).

Bibliography

Björkman 1910: Erik Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in England in alt- und frühmittel-englischer Zeit, Studien zur englischen Philologie 37 (Halle an der Saale, 1910; reprinted Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1973)

Brown 1984: Domesday Book 33: Norfolk, ed. P. Brown (Chichester, 1984)

McClure and Rollason 2007: P. McClure and D. Rollason, ‘B Surnames’, The Durham Liber Vitae. London, British Library, MS Cotton Domitian A.VII: Edition and Digital Facsimile with Introduction, Codicological, Prosopographical and Linguistic Commentary, and Indexes, ed. D. W. Rollason and L. Rollason, 3 vols. (London: British Library, 2007), ii, 247-354

Redin 1919: Studies on Uncompounded Personal Names in Old English (Uppsala: A.-B. Akademska Bokhandeln, 1919)

Rumble 1987: A. R. Rumble, ‘The Domesday manuscripts: scribes and scriptoria’, in Domesday Studies, ed. J. C. Holt (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 79-99

S: P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 8 (London, 1968), revised by S. Kelly, R. Rushforth et al., The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, published online through Kemble: The Anglo-Saxon Charters Website, currently at http://www.esawyer.org.uk/about/index.html 

Smith 1964: A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of Gloucestershire: Part Two (Cambridge, 1964)

Watts 2004: V. Watts, The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names (Cambridge, 2004)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Vaganus, Waga

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Vagn

  Phillimore edition: Waga, Wagen  [+ Vagn in Index]

  Alecto edition: Vagn

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Staffordshire 12,25 Great Barr Waga Wagen of Wootton - William fitzAnsculf Robert 'the man of William fitzAnsculf' 3.00 0.25 0.25 C Map
Warwickshire 22,1 Churchover Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 7.00 1.00 5.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,2 Wolford Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 7.00 1.00 5.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,23 Norton Lindsey Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford Hervey 'of Stretton' 1.00 1.00 2.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,4 Tysoe Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 23.00 20.00 30.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,6 Ullenhall Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 1.00 3.00 3.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,7 Offord Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 5.00 3.00 4.00 B Map
Warwickshire 22,9 Wootton Wawen Waga Wagen of Wootton - Robert of Stafford - 7.00 4.00 4.00 B Map
Totals

Subtenant in 1086

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Norfolk 13,24 Wreningham Vaganus Leofweald 'of Wreningham' - Hermer de Ferrers Wagen 'of Wreningham' 3.10 3.00 4.00 B Map
Norfolk 13,24 Wreningham Vaganus 8 free men Leofweald, thegn Hermer de Ferrers Wagen 'of Wreningham' 0.23 0.20 0.20 C Map
Totals